I was allways under the impression that the front of our cars have struts, and the back has shocks, but now I'm finding out that the front struts can be replaced with shocks, is this true? I want to purchase bilstein shocks for the front and back, If I put them in the front is there anything different I will have to do in order for them to fit? Do my eibach springs go over the shock?

http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/pe...26&brandid=898 Thats the link to where I'm going to buy them. Tell me if this is correct.

 

Basically they are the same thing, if they are listed for your car everything works and fits exactly the same no matter what they call it.

Shocks refers to stationary dampers, they just go in and out and provide resistance to the spring oscillations, think solid rear axle and Short-Long Arm (SLA) front susp. The spring and shock are seperate, they generally attach to the lower a-arm and the frame.

MacPherson Struts refers to dampers like on a FWD car. The bottom attaches to the steering knuckle and the top attaches to the car via a bearing plate and strut tower. So instead of just going in and out they are rotating with the steering as well. The spring is mounted to the damper itself. I think this is the setup 3rds gens have up front.

Modified Struts is basically everything in between, where the 4th gens sit. They have a SLA type suspension but instead of a shock and a spring they have a stationary strut, which attaches to the lower a-arm instead of the steering knuckle but it still attaches to the car via a bearing plate and strut tower, minus the bearing if that makes any sense.

So you see the grey area there right, thats one some say one thing other say another.

 

Awsome, you did a great job explaining the difference in simple terms. Looks like those will be the ones I go with.

Thanks Alot!!!

 

The answer to your question depends on the year of your car, which you failed to mention. The 3rd Gens have "struts". The 4th Gen's have coil-over shocks in an unequal A-arm suspension. If you have a 3rd Gen, you buy struts, if you have a 4th Gen you buy shocks.

This is off a Mustang website, but it illustrates the differences:

Strut (3rd Gen F-Body):



Unequal A-arm (4th Gen F-Body - add the coil-over spring assembly, mounted between the lower a-arm and the body above the upper a-arm):

 

4th gens have shocks all the way around no matter how you look at it. Lots of people are confused about it.

 

A shock absorber, or "shock", is anything which dampens motion. In automotive applications, they are usually gas-filled, and they have an internal orifice which the gas must pass through in order for the shock to extend or retract. When no force is applied, a shock absorber does not move, no matter what its starting position is. You push it in, it stays in; you pull it out, it stays out.

A spring is something which compresses under a load (with the amount of compression varying by the size of the load) and returns when the load is removed. There are three major types of springs used in automotive suspensions. Leaf springs (stacks of metal bands -- look at the rear suspension on a pickup truck), air bags (literally), and coil springs.

In this picture, the yellow things are shocks and the red things are coil springs.


When the shock absorber is located inside the coil spring, the assembly is known as a "coil-over". Like this:


A strut is a suspension device which also provides lateral support for the wheel assembly. In reference to automobile suspensions, "struts" pretty much always refers to MacPherson struts. A MacPherson strut is a coil-over shock/spring combination mounted to the steering knuckle in the fashion described above by Lazlo. Here's a nice diagram I found on WikiPedia:


There is also a Chapman strut, which is basically the same thing when used on the rear of the vehicle. You won't hear this term very often.